III
THE TAMIL PEOPLE.—(continued).
The one other theory that remains to be considered is that a large number of emigrants from Western Asia came into the country either by a direct sea-route or by land through the Western mountain passes, and became superimposed on the aboriginal stock, probably of the Lemurian origin, before there was any Aryan influence in South India. The original home of these people should have been Assyria and Asia Minor and they should have lived with the ancient Accadians and other Turanian races before they migrated to India through the Northwestern passes. This theory seems to have much to be said in its favour, although apparent objections have been raised against it by Mr. D. Bray, Sir H. Risley and other scholars. We shall as in the case of the other theories collect together all the arguments regarding it under the three main heads of philology, archæology and literary tradition.
Linguistic evidence : Dr. Caldwell thinks that
